Labor Day Hike to Donut Falls

I've been wanting to go on more hikes since summer is coming to a close (although fall hikes might be even better!). The trick is dragging Justin out of bed on a Saturday morning to go with me ☺

I got him to go, but couldn't drag him out of the house as early as I wanted to so we didn't end up leaving until 10:30 or so. I thought it was a lost cause since Nolan would need to go down for a nap sometime before 12:30, but Justin knew it was important to me (and that I was a little miffed we didn't leave earlier hehe) so he insisted we go anyway.

We decided to hike Donut Falls in Big Cottonwood Canyon since it's shorter and pretty easy to find. Apparently everyone else in Salt Lake County had the same idea because there were so.many.people on the trail!

Also, Nolan fell asleep during the drive up the canyon. Great, I thought. I knew this would happen! I didn't want to wake him up and toyed with the idea of just going for a drive and calling it a day, but Justin thought we should still give it a try. So we woke the poor boy up and stuffed him in the carrier which he did not like. It was also much colder than we anticipated and all of us were wearing short sleeves and t-shirts. Poor Nolan was crying, I was annoyed, and once again I wanted to just throw in the towel, but I'm so glad we stuck it out because we ended up having so much fun!!

As soon as Justin actually picked up the carrier and put it on his back Nolan seemed to warm to the idea. I think he liked being right there with daddy. Plus, I kept him well supplied with Veggie Sticks ☺

Veggie Sticks, two at a time. Silly kid!

Nolan loved pulling at leaves and smelling the flowers.

I made them stop for lots of pictures ☺ Do you blame me? Look how cute they are!

 

We didn't quite make it all the way to the falls (too many people), but you can see it in the middle of the pic. Here's a stock picture of what's up there. 

This is also a fun and easy snowshoeing hike that I've done several times. Here's a pic of me from 2009 butt sliding down the falls during a night hike with friends (Preston came on that hike with me. Jamen Nelson in the pic)

These hiking companions are even better ♥

Nolan really wanted to throw rocks in the water so of course we stopped and let him have some fun.

Although the fun took a bit of a downturn when Nolan bent down to reach for a particular rock and fell halfway in the stream! He wasn't a big fan of getting the cold water on him. I wouldn't have either! And it was already pretty cool. Poor guy was probably freezing! He was a champ though.

♥ ♥ ♥

Still freezing from being a bit wet, but having a blast nonetheless!

He LOVES hide and seek (and is surprisingly good at it for his age! He usually needs some help finding a good hiding spot, but is able to stay really quiet and still until he's found)

Jumping!

Singing again in the backseat ☺ "Daniel Tiga 'hood!" "Supa readers save the day!"